Outstanding adoption service and improved support for vulnerable children sees council removed from intervention

Today our Ofsted report has been published, confirming the progress that inspectors highlighted in their feedback in November.

I am sure you will be pleased to hear that overall our services are no longer inadequate - we have an outstanding adoption service and are providing much better support to children in our care and our care leavers.

Overall, we require improvement and are well on our way to delivering the consistently good services we want to see for all of Norfolk's children. Schools play a huge part in our work to keep children safe and I am grateful to you for your ongoing support and commitment.

The two week inspection was forensic in looking at the support we are giving to children, young people and their families. Inspectors sampled 250 cases and visited very many teams across the county. They found that social workers were visiting children regularly, helping to keep them safe and that more families were receiving early help when they first need it.

Seven recommendations were made for further improvement, including ensuring that there is a stable and settled workforce, to support children's relationships with social workers. Inspectors also said we need to ensure sufficient capacity and systems in the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), to support timely decision making and that we need to strengthen the response to children who go missing or are at risk of sexual exploitation.

It is key that we get the MASH right and you may be aware that we are already reviewing how it operates and looking closely at the pressures we are facing.

Overall, this is a positive report that shows that we are well on our way to being judged good. We can look forward with confidence knowing that services are improving, children's lives are better and we have the ambition, determination and investment to continue to improve.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sara Tough
Executive Director of Children's Services
Norfolk County Council